Once Bitten Twice Shy
by mg78
Summary: An AU JK story. This takes place in Oregon where Kate that's what she goes by hasn't gotten over her ex lover. Jessie then comes by and try to help Kate get over her ex and tries to get Kate to love her instead. Probably won't be updated for a while.
1. Bluer Than Blue

**Disclaimer - I do not own the characters of Jessica Sammler and Katherine Singer, they are the properties of Once and Again and ABC. I also do not own the lyrics to the song _Bluer Than Blue_, they are the properties of Michael Johnson.**

**Summary - This is an AU fan fiction of Jessie and Katie, however in this one she is called Kate. This one is set in Oregon where Katie is having a hard time letting go of a past lover and Jessie is trying to get Kate to love her. **

**Sorry but I couldn't come up with a better title for the story, if you can think of something people than please tell me.**

**Rating - R for mature.**

**Notes - **Thisis dedicated to all those who kept the memory of Jessie and Katiealive.

Part 1:

It was a cool and crisp spring night in Springfield, Oregon, a small and rather quiet town that usually had nothing going on during the night. However the town was near the bigger city Eugene, where the University of Oregon resides, so there was always something going on there. None of this makes much of a difference for Katherine Singer (she prefers to go by Kate) who was at her home in a dimly-lit living room lying down on her couch with a glass of cherry brandy in her left hand and listening to her favorite station SM95, the easy-listening soft-rock station.

This was her usual routine after she comes home for work for the last two years. Everyday when she came home from work or from the gym she would cry her heart out from the songs they played on the station between 8pm and 10pm. That segment is called Night Whispers and they played nothing but old and/or sad love songs from today and in the past (mostly 70s and 80s but some 60s and 90s). Kate listened to the station because some of the songs reminded her of the wonderful times she had with Sarah Grasso, the love of her life that unexpectedly left her two years ago. At that point she hasn't gotten over Sarah, she kept all of her picture all over the house and often daydreams about the days that they were together. Another reason she likes the station was that a lot of the songs on the station sang about her current mood, such as the case for the next song that's about to be played.

The familiar station's jingle first plays "Soft rock like no one else, SM95!" then comes a calm and smooth DJ voice on the radio: "Hi this is Ron Thomas and you are listening to Night Whispers. Next I will play a song that many people can relate to when that special someone leaves you. It's a sad yet beautiful song that really touches the pain of being lonely and being deserted." With that he puts on Michael Johnson's classic _Bluer Than Blue_.

As the singer sings the following lyrics:

_After you go  
I can catch up on my reading  
After you go  
I'll have a lot more time for sleeping_

_And when you're gone it looks like things  
Are gonna be a lot easier  
Life will be a breeze, you know  
I really should be glad_

_But I'm bluer than blue  
Sadder than sad  
You're the only light  
This empty room has ever had  
Life without you is gonna be  
Bluer than blue_

Kate started to break down and cry, relating very well to the lyrics of the song of what was once a livelier house, now empty and soulless with just herself and her two cats Petra and Camille. They too are feeling the effects of Sarah's absence since she was a wonderful cat caretaker and the cats really loved her since she would spend time with the cats.

After the song ended, she got up from the couch and went straight to her bedroom and lie on the bed, crying herself to sleep. This is basically an everyday thing for her, sometimes she wondered if Sarah's absence would have a permanent scar on her heart for the rest of her life. When she slept she usually dreamed about the good times she had with Sarah and how they would have their future together. She wished that she could sleep her whole life away.

I guess this is a good time to talk about Kate herself. She is 30 years old and is originally from Chicago but she decided to move to Eugene, Oregon after she was reading _A Design Pattern_ while studying Architecture and Interior Design at the University Of Chicago. One of the writers was a professor at the University of Oregon and she really wanted to learn from him. When she arrived at Eugene, she was taken surprise at the liberal atmosphere surrounded her in Eugene. With the city being big on co-op shops, organic markets, and alternative healing she felt like she found herself a new home, something different from the somewhat-conservative setting she loathed in Chicago. But the biggest thing that draws her to this city was their acceptance of her sexuality, it was not considered to be an issue. It wasn't that much of an issue in Chicago either but she did get a few occasional heckles and harassments, in particular there are a few members in her family who are not talking to her because of it.

Kate looks like Mischa Barton with meat on her bones and muscles at the right places. She has biceps, thighs and a six-pack but she also had a 36-C cup size and a nice firm and rounded bottom, she has something you can grab on too ;) She needed to be strong because her main job is running a home and crafts store and she does home improvement side projects such as building fences, creating sheds and clubhouses, she's basically a hands-on architect.

Her personality is kind of like her body, she is both masculine and feminine. She has no problems being either butch or femme, she's more like a "hard femme" but don't tell her that, she hates labels. She can talk to you about the latest Portland Trailblazers basketball game and yet she can also talk to you about the latest episode of All My Children (and yes Bianca is her favorite character). In her home she has a few dolls but also a few motorcycle magazines.

With the body and the personality she has, she is very much wanted by both men and women, straight women even asked her out but she often tells them no, she refuse to be some "lesbian experiment" and bisexuals considers her the "ultimate woman" due to her having both "masculine" and "feminine" qualities, but she doesn't date bisexuals either based on her fear of she being nothing more to them but a "substitute" until an interested man comes along (plus she had horrible experiences with bisexual women).

She is soft and warm like a woman but isn't prissy, yet she is also assertive and confident like a man but she's doesn't carry the coldness and the insensitiveness of a man, well...that how she used to be. Now she is cold and she isn't as soft, warm or assertive like she used to be. That depression of hers is also affecting her business.


	2. Kate's Home and Crafts

**Disclaimer - **I do not own the characters of Jessica Sammler and Katherine Singer, they are the properties of Once and Again and ABC. I also do not own the lyrics to the song _Never Gonna Fall In Love_, they are the properties of Eric Carmen and Arista Records.

Part 2:

Welcome to _Kate's Home and Crafts,_ a store for all you housing and garden needs. Her store got everything you need for your home, chainsaws, sheetrock, kitchen sink, yarn, plants, pottery, etc. If it's about your house or crafts she's got it! Unlike Home Depot she don't hire anybody from off the street, she makes sure that the employees she have in her store know their stuff. However none of them is a charismatic and have a wide range of knowledge than Kate herself. She can help you find the perfect screwdriver for you door and yet at the same time tell you what is the best baking pan for your cake.

She started the business even though there was a Home Depot and a Wal-Mart in the area. Even though everyone told her not to build her store she still built it. She felt that her service, the product quality, and a community sense that she can bring through her store can win over the customers and she was right, her stubbornness paid off. It was the only place where you can find a construction worker and housewife chatting together in the new café they just added to the store. Also people in the area could sell their products in the store, something that Wal-Mart wouldn't dare to do.

However business was going down, it seemed that people came to see Kate for advice and by then she rarely appeared in the store. She was mostly in the office either doing financial work or just plain daydreaming about her and Sarah, and on occasions she fell asleep in the office. The employees are feeling the effect too, she was a very good boss during her days with Sarah, but after Sarah left she became more difficult to deal with. Two of her employees quit because of it and she fired one employee just simply because he brought up Sarah.

There was one employee who stood by her even through the difficult times and his name was Darnell Charles. He was like the Assistant Supervisor to Kate, basically making him second in charge of the store. He was a well-built African-American male in his mid-late 20s who was still working for her because she gave him an opportunity when nobody else would. He himself also have a degree in Architecture from Oregon University yet due to his race and the stereotype that's associated with it (not smart enough for Architecture) nobody didn't hire him. However one day when Kate just opened store, he came in looking for a type of drill, she showed him her selections and he was impressed. From there on they ended up talking about homebuilding and Kate was really impressed with his knowledge, so she hired him a few days later. Even since then they became good friends.

He was also the guy who helps her in a lot of side projects that Kate gets involved in. They are co-owners of the side business they have; basically with the exception of temporary hired help they do all the work themselves. Anyways one day while Kate was in her office actually daydreaming Darnell walked in. Being a polite person he always knocked before coming in. That snapped Kate out of her daydream.

"Come on in!" As she tried to regain her thoughts and pretend that she was working.

"Hey girl, what's up?" Darnell said.

"Nothing, trying to find out how much we made on those quilts we had on sale."

"I think we made enough, although there are a few quilts still remaining." Darnell replied.

"Yeah but I didn't think that those that are remaining will sell. Well you know Mrs. Appleby quilts are, as I can put it in a nice way...unique."

"Yeah, so what should we do to them?"

"Give it to the Salvation Army or Goodwill, I'm sure they can use it."

"That sounds good. I'll do that tomorrow morning. By the way, Esmeralda told me to tell you there are no more Tulips and Lilies in the flower section of the garden."

"What? Why didn't she tell me directly?"

"That's because she's afraid to talk to you after you yelled at her about screwing up on the watering of the plants." Darnell said with a small frown on his face.

"But she should know better by now, she's been working here for eight months now."

"That doesn't give you a reason to yell at her," Darnell said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah but what am I suppose to do, baby her? She makes lots of careless mistakes, mistakes that no one with her years of experience should make." Kate said rather angrily.

"She does make careless mistakes but there's no need to scream at her and call her incompetent." Darnell responded with some anger of his own.

"I just don't understand how she can forget to water the roses. The roses are our big sellers."

"Look Kate, I'm you friend and a very good friend but I need to be straightforward with you and don't get mad at me because of it, but you need to stop carrying you anger on other people."

"I'm not carrying my anger at other people! She did something very stupid!"

"Yes you are Kate, Esmeralda was crying after you screamed at her! I had to support her for 10 minutes after that. That might not be a good example but I can think of others. Like when Mike talks about her girlfriend and you tell him rather coldly not to talk about his love life, or when Esmeralda talks about her girlfriend and their baby daughter you get really upset with her. This is all because of Sarah!"

"Don't you ever bring that woman's name up in here!" Kate said with a harsh tone.

"NO, WE NEED TO BRING HER NAME UP!" Darnell screamed back at Kate with every bit of air in his lungs. "It's because you haven't gotten over her that you treat people the way you do! The hurt that she did to you, you are bringing it to everybody, you're hurting your employees, your customers, your friends and your business! You're hurting every god damn mutha fuckin' thing that's around you!"

When she was about to scream back to him, she realize she had to calm down or things can get ugly, which means it can come to fist and blows with each other. As good as a fighter as Kate was, she is no match with Darnell, who was also a trained Kung-Fu expert.

"Now you listen to me, go back out to the front and help out the customers. Don't come back in here and don't talk to me for the rest of the day, understand?" She said with as much coldness and harshness that she could put into it.

Darnell couldn't believe that his good friend would say something like that to him. He wanted to say more but was afraid of the consequences, so he returned back with the same coldness responding "I understand." He then slammed the door and walked away.

After a while Kate sat back in the desk and started to cry. She cried with everything she had in her heart and she cried like that for nearly an hour. Everything around her was falling apart right in front of her, but most of all she was still crying about Sarah. While looking at a picture of Sarah and her on a camping trip she started to ask questions.

"Why did you leave me? What did I do to deserve this? You know I love you more than anything else in this world. Why? WHY?"

While she was crying, a song from SM95 came on that fits her current feeling. It was Eric Carmen's _Never Gonna Fall in Love Again_.

_At first we thought that love was here to stay  
The summer made it seem so right  
But like the sun we watched it fade away  
From morning into lonely night_

_Never gonna fall in love again  
I don't wanna start with someone new  
'cause I couldn't bear to see it end  
Just like me and you_

_  
No, I never wanna feel the pain  
Of remembering how it used to be  
Never gonna fall in love again  
Just like you and me_

In truth she really didn't stop crying until a phone rang.

She had to get her composure together so that it didn't sound like she was crying. See succeeded somewhat, "Kate's Home and Crafts, this is Kate speaking," she said with a a little bit of crackle in her voice.

"Hi, Kate" said a woman with a soft Chicago accent. "My name is Jessica Sammler and I'm a producer for a TV show on the Travel Channel. It's called _Several Places of America That You Probably Missed_ and we need some ladders and possible one or two scaffolds for our camera men. I was wondering if you have any in stock."

"Oh yes we certainly do, I have many types of ladders and scaffolds for your needs. By the way are you from Chicago?"

"Yes I am, how do you know?"

"I can tell by the way you said 'scaffold'. From what part of Chicago are you from?"

"Well I'm from Evanston. You must be from the southern part by the way I hear you say ladders."

Kate chuckled a bit "Yes I'm from Bridgeport."

"Oh you must be a Sox (Chicago White Sox) fan?"

"Damn right! 2005 World Series Champs!"

"Oh you Sox fans have to rub it in."

"Sorry that I have to remind you that your team hasn't won the World Series since 1908."

"OK I'm going to call some other store..."

"Just kidding, just kidding! Jesus, Anyways I think you should check out the ladders and scaffolds that we have in our store, if you can't find what you need, we can order it for you. We have excellent customer service, our products are of excellent quality and we have excellent warranties for our products."

"OK, that sounds cool to me, can you give me the directions to get there? We are currently in Eugene."

Kate then gives her directions to her store. She just thought to herself that it was just another customer who just happened to be from Chicago, little did she know that Jessica would change her life for the better, that's if she lets her.


	3. A Meeting with Destiny

Disclaimer – I do not own the characters of Jessica Sammler and Katherine Singer, they are the properties of Once and Again and ABC

**Disclaimer – **I do not own the characters of Jessica Sammler and Katherine Singer, they are the properties of Once and Again and ABC.

**Summary – **This is an AU fan fiction of Jessie and Katie, however in this one she is called Kate. This one is set in Oregon where Kate is having a hard time letting go of a past lover and Jessie is trying to get Kate to love her.

**Rating – **R for mature.

**Notes – **I am suffering from some SERIOUS writers block on this story. I don't know if I'll ever complete this story.

Part 3: A Meeting with Destiny

She knew she just couldn't sit in her office and cry all day long when there were quite a few things needed to be done in the store. The one thing she didn't want to happen was to blow the sale. She had big and important clients before and she had local TV companies buying her products, but she never had a national TV company before. It would be a great opportunity to increase her exposure, which she really needed because Home Depot and Wal-Mart were kicking her butt. So she went to the main floor of the store and checked to see if the ladders and scaffolds aisle were clean. Unfortunately it wasn't.

"Well if you want something to get done, you have to do it yourself…" Kate said with reluctance to having to clean the aisle up herself.

She's a pretty strong woman but scaffolds and ladders are not the easiest things to move around and Kate struggled a little bit. Of course with her stubborn personality she wouldn't ask for help but Darnell was nearby and knew that she needed some help. Plus he also knew that something important must be going on because she usually doesn't come out to the main floor and clean up an aisle.

"Girl you can't move all them stuff by yourself. Here let me help you."

"Thanks" she mumbled. She didn't look at him in the eye when she said that.

"Look Darnell I'm really sorry about snapping at you."

Just when Darnell was about to respond back to Kate he heard someone entering from the store.

"It sounds like someone just came in the store; I'll go check it out. We'll talk later."

"Fine" Kate replied.

Darnell went to the front of the store and meet the customers.

"Welcome to Kate's Home and Crafts, I'm Darnell, how can I help you today?"

It was the TV producer Jessie Sammler and she brought along two other men to help her with the scaffolds and ladders.

"Hi Darnell, I'm Jessica Sammler of the Travel Channel and we are looking for some scaffolds and ladders for a television show. By the way this is Steve and Kevin, my cameramen."

"How do you do men?"

"Fine thanks." They both said to Darnell while shaking his hand.

"So you guys are making a television show?"

"Yep, It's called _Several Places of America That You Probably Missed _and we are here to record a show on this city."

"Interesting, well you couldn't find a rather peculiar store than this one. Follow me."

Darnell's instincts were right, it was something very important. He was thinking that this could lead to more revenue for the store and that he could finally get that raise he wanted for a while.

When he finally got to the aisle, Kate was straightening out the last scaffold having her back facing the customers a few feet away.

"Well here's the ladders and scaffolds section, and over there putting away one of our scaffolds is the owner of the store Katherine Singer."

When Kate heard her name, she turned around. She noticed Jessie immediately and looked at Jessie's beautiful blue eyes. Jessie herself was actually staring at Kate's emerald green eyes. They were checking each other out as well, Jessie was looking at Kate's well-proportioned body and Kate was looking at Jessie's blond hair and nice figure. While those two were noticing at each other, Darnell and Kevin were noticing that those two were noticing each other!

But they eventually came back into reality.

"Hi I'm Jessica Sammler, but you can call me Jessie."

"Hi Jessie." Kate said while still having her eyes fixed on Jessie.

"And these are my camera men, Steve and Kevin."

Kate politely shakes their hands "Hi how are you doing." But as soon as she shakes their hands her eyes went right back to Jessie. Kate knowing that she has a sale to make started to talk about her ladders and scaffolds.

"I'm glad you came here, how did you hear about this place?"

"Kevin here is from this area. He's from the Modoc tribe."

"Ah yes, I've helped repair a lot of their buildings on their reservations."

Kevin added "She and Darnell volunteered a lot of their time to fix our buildings in our reservation when everyone else wanted to charge an arm and a leg."

"Well I think you came to the right place for your needs. Our ladders and scaffolds are of high quality, you won't find the cheap crap from China in this store!"

While she was showing the ladders and scaffolds to Jessie, it was quite apparent that Jessie was more interested in Kate than she was to the ladders and scaffolds. Kate was trying her best to ignore the attraction, firmly believing that Sarah is the only person who can occupy her heart.

Steve, who was mostly quite during the time said "There are not a lot of home improvement or craft stores that have a café, tell us what made you want to have that?"

"Well I noticed that some of the people had to go outside or stand at a corner of the store to chit chat and also there are lots of gatherings going around here. Plus I also noticed that kids don't like to wait too long in the lines. So in addition to the café I'm planning to add a play area soon."

"Wow this seems to be an interesting area run by an interesting owner." Jessie said which made Kate blush a little bit but she quickly wiped it off from her face.

"Would you like to have your store on the show?" Jessie asked.

When Kate heard that she wanted to do flips and cartwheels (believe it or not she still can) but she controlled herself and greatly accepted her offer.

"Yes I would, thanks. When will we start your taping on this store?"

"Since you will be a late add-on, you will be the last place we will be taping. We will be here for two weeks, so it will be near the end of the two weeks."

"Great, that will give us some time to get ready for the taping. Thanks a lot."

"No problem, I think your store is quite unique and it would be perfect for our show."

Jessie said following it up with a seductive smile. Kate pretended to be oblivious as to what Jessie was doing but in the back of her mind she knew very well what she was doing. However Kate didn't think that Jessie was any different than any of the other women and men who flirted with her, even though she might be from her hometown.

Because of this Kate put her shield up and responded back a bit cold. "Well the checkout is down there, we have an additional 5-year warranty for the ladders and scaffolds."

Jessie was kind of stunned by Kate's sudden coldness. She was now second-guessing her flirting with Kate.

"OK thanks."

"Do you think you need more people to help you guys carry all those stuff?"

"Yes we sure do."

So Kate and Darnell helped carried the rest of the ladders and scaffolds. Kate was trying her best not to look at Jessie's figure. Jessie being in front of Kate was oblivious of Kate's glances. Darnell, who was behind both Kate and Jessie noticed Kate's failed attempts to not look at Jessie.

After they got their supplies and left the store, Kate showed a certain emotion that she hasn't had in a long time, joy.

"Oh my God! We're going to be on TV!" Kate said with excitement then she ran up to Darnell and hugged him. He was happy too but he was also thinking of something else.

_Hmm maybe I found Kate a new woman in her life…_

Meanwhile back in the van while driving to their hotel, the three were talking to each other starting with Kevin.

"Jessie do you really think we can squeeze them in our show?"

"Of course, if I can't then I'll get rid of the Ghost Seeker Paranormal segment. I think people don't care for that."

"But the last time you did that, the executive producer yelled at you."

"But he also apologized after that episode had a higher rating."

Steve then came into the conversation "Yeah, or is it an excuse for you to see more of that hot owner of the store."

Jessie started to blush when she heard that. She didn't realize that both Steve and Kevin were watching her trying to flirt at Kate. "You seriously thought that we didn't notice?"

"Yeah she's hot alright, but it seems that she's not interested. She just turned cold on me all of the sudden."

"Yeah that's true but I noticed that she was checking you out as well." Kevin replied.

"Well maybe so. Anyways let's get back to the hotel and start preparing for tomorrow."

END OF CHAPTER 3


	4. The Phone Call

**Disclaimer – **I do not own the characters of Jessica Sammler and Katherine Singer, they are the properties of Once and Again and ABC.

**Summary – **This is an AU fan fiction of Jessie and Katie, however in this one she is called Kate. This one is set in Oregon where Kate is having a hard time letting go of a past lover and Jessie is trying to get Kate to love her.

**Rating – **R for mature.

**Notes – **Thisis dedicated to all those who kept the memory of Jessie and Katiealive.

Part 4:

Kate went back in her office excited about having the store appear on national television. She knew that there were a few things needed to be done which included cleaning up the store and refilling many of the stocks. Those two alone were major tasks that required a good deal of her resources and she needed to let the rest of the staff know about the television appearance thus she knew that a staff meeting was necessary.

Darnell, with Jessie's business card, was debating whether or not he should give her a call and set something up between her and Kate.

"Hmm… I see some potential here but she's only going to be here for a few weeks, then I'll see the grumpy Jessie again and she will probably be even worse" as he was thinking to himself during the meeting. He wanted Kate to be happy but it only made sense if it was going to be permanent.

Kate finally arranged the staff meeting in the store's backroom where they usually hold their inventories. During the meeting Kate was rather upbeat while she was talking about the show's scheduled television appearance.

"OK Everyone I have an important announcement to make. Our store is going to be show on national television nearly two weeks from now."

When she said that everybody got excited about the good news however she had to bring them back to reality.

"This is good news for the store and we sure needed one for quite a while but that also means that for the next two weeks we have to get this store in tip-top shape. Most of you might have to work overtime to get this done. We must have our aisles neat and clean, we must have our floors shiny and clean, we must be extra friendly and helpful to our customers, and we must know our products and/or services better than before."

Then one of the staff members said very boldly "we will do all that if you start becoming nicer to us!"

There was a dead silence in the room for a few seconds then another staff member said "yeah" and then all the other staff members joined in. Kate never realized the full extent of her nastiness to her employees until that moment. She was starting to feel guilty for all that she has done.

While trying her best not to show any of the sorrow she felt for her unprofessional actions over the past two years she plainly spoke to her employees. "I know that I've been difficult for quite a while and to be honest with you I shouldn't be but from this moment on I will be more respectful and professional to all of you. There's no reason or excuse to put my anger on all of you. So please I apologize for my behavior over the past two years."

Some of the staff members nodded in respect to her apology while others mumbled their acceptance of her apology.

"Now let's focus on the television appearance. If we pull this off and we actually get some real money off of this I will give everybody a raise and we will all go out for a dinner and the tab will be on me!"

There were lots of smiles and "alright" coming from the staff members since it has been a long time since they had something to be excited about.

"So I want all of you to put 110% effort in your work for the next two weeks so we can show everybody that this is the best hardware and crafts store in all of Oregon!"

When the staff meeting was over every left the backroom and retuned to their tasks. For once in a long time the staff left the backroom with smiles on their faces and also for once in a long time they had something to look forward to.

There was one employee that didn't leave and that was Darnell. Kate wanted to make a plan with him for the upcoming television appearance so they can cover all their bases.

+-+-+

Meanwhile Jessie was lying in her bed at the hotel still thinking about the store owner she met earlier that day. She couldn't get her mind off of Kate no matter how hard she tried. She was imagining everything about her: her beautiful lips, her mossy-green eyes, her light-brown hair, her muscular-yet-curvy figure. She hasn't felt that hard for a girl since college.

Kevin entered into her room and came up to her bed. He was examining Jessie's dazed look

"What's going on in that simple head of yours?" Kevin said teasingly

"Nothing really important, I'm just thinking of various things." Jessie said while trying her best to hide her thoughts of Kate from Kevin.

"I know that look, you're still thinking about that girl." Kevin said teasingly. One of his favorite activities is to tease Jessie, although Jessie has no problem returning the favor back to him.

"No I'm not." She said but the pinkish-red blush appearing on her face told something else.

"Yes you are! Your red face shows it all!"

Jessie blushed a little bit more than said "OK you got me, I'm still thinking about her. I still don't know why she all of the sudden went cold on me."

"I don't know either. Maybe she wanted to be more focus on her job." Kevin said.

"That could be true or maybe she got someone else in her life."

"That sounds like a more plausible reason."

"However we can't assume that could be case. I guess we need to find a way to meet her again, my mind and my heart wouldn't want it any other way."

"Damn woman, she really caught your eye didn't she?"

Jessie just grinned back at Kevin as a sign of her agreement to his question.

"I wish I would have that effect on you" he said in his usual joking matter. Jessie just punched him back lightly and told him to shut up.

"Don't hit me girl, I'm delicate," he said with a silly pouting look on his face.

"You're 6'2'' and 220 pounds, you ain't delicate one bit," Jessie said mocking back at him. Thus their usual childish banter got started and it kept on going for a while until Jessie's business cell phone rang.

"Oh shit, my phone is ringing! It might be Tim (their boss) so I better answer it real quick!"

However when she looked at the number on the cell it wasn't Tim's but someone from the area.

"Hello Jessica speaking whom am I speaking to?"

"It's Darnell from Kate's Home and Crafts."

"Hey Darnell how are you doing?"

"Fine thank you."

"What is it that you're calling about?"

"I just wanted to know if you have any free time so that me and Kate can show you more of the area."

Jessie was somewhat puzzled as to why Darnell would offer them a tour of the area? Was it to make sure they get a spot on the TV? Was Darnell just being friendly?

"Well thanks but Kevin knows the area very well so we really don't need a tour guide."

"But Kevin hasn't been here in a while and I bet the area has changed since the last time he was here. Plus with Kate you have a female guide and she can take you to areas that neither me nor Kevin could."

A big smile appeared on her face, she knew his true intentions.

"_So someone is playing matchmaker here…"_ She was thinking to herself. She realized that it's been a while since she's been on a date so why not go along with the game and also she would do anything to see her face again.

"OK, sure. Where are your plans for us? My crew must come too."

"No problem, where we're going to meet is perfect for a group. There's a river around that is very popular for white-water rafting. It's considered to be one of the best in the United States. I think it would be a good one for your show."

"Ooh that sounds exciting. If it's as good as you said it is then we will go ahead a put it in our show."

"Great. When are you guy available?"

"Well being a TV producer, especially an executive producer, I don't have a lot of time but I think Thursday around two would work. How does that sound?"

"Even though we'll be busy in preparation for the taping I think that will be perfect for us. Do you have a pen and paper ready for the directions?"

"If you're using a cell phone, just text me the time and directions and we'll be there."

"I'll do that instead."

Jessie knew that the white-water rafting would be fun and a good starting point but since it's an intense activity she wouldn't have anytime to talk to chat to Kate, so she added something else to the outing.

"Are there any bars or places that we can hang out after the white-water rafting? I know that we will be tired and we want to chill out for a while. It doesn't have to be good enough for the show, just some place with a nice atmosphere."

"Sure, we know a few spots that will be perfect for you and your crew."

"Great, then it sounds like a plan."

"Well"

"Looking forward to the date, I mean activity. Good bye!" Jessie said as she hung up the phone quickly knowing that she just made a Freudian slip. Darnell himself was a little bit shocked that she knew about it. Now he must tell her the whole plan.

END OF CHAPTER 4 (PROBABLY THE UNFINISHED END)


End file.
